An exhibition with H’art: Christchurch Art Gallery

View the provocative ‘Springtime is Heart-break: Contemporary Art in Aotearoa’ exhibition where a diverse range of art explores ideas from nature’s renewal to emotional turmoil.

Christchurch Art Gallery, Te Puna o Waiwhetū showcases 24 innovative artists in this dynamic body of work, on display until 19 March 2024.

Curator Melanie Oliver invites us to be captivated by the paradoxical essence of contemporary art at its finest. The title, inspired by an Ursula Bethell poem so eloquently resonates the fragility of human connections, of bitter-sweet transitions between space and time, where beauty and pain intertwine.

The exhibition compels you to think and feel deeply, echoing a tenderness in the works poignantly expressed through various mediums, namely textiles, sculpture, painting, photography, moving images, and sound.

With storytelling at the helm, the artists convey the raw emotion of heartbreak amidst the promise of new beginnings. They consider ideas around communication, distance, memory, the body and materiality, questioning; how can we communicate through time or in a different tongue?

Experience the works of Heidi Brickell, Priscilla Rose Howe, Lucy Meyle, Steven Junil Park, and John Harris, to name a few, and let Christchurch Art Gallery entice you to contemplate life’s transient beauty in style.

IMAGE: Tia Ranginui, The tangi of Ruaumoko